Incomplete reinspect permit meaning

[Ccat]

I am looking at an old house (needs a lot of cleanup and fixup, but cute).  Its permit from 25 years ago lists single wall construction, redwood and cedar, incomplete needs reinspection.   

What would that mean for today?  Is it legally habitable as is, given the original inspection was never finalled?

Ccat

[GreenNerd]

If the permit wasn’t completed, you probably need as-is blueprints to start the permit process.  The structure would likely need to be brought up to current code.

[kalakoa]

A building is not habitable unless/until it passes final inspection.

All permitting is at the whim of County officials. They might decide the permits were issued "in error".

Good luck.

[Durian Fiend]

Yes, I'm afraid the posters above are correct, although it wouldn't hurt to make an official inquiry to confirm.

[BlackAkita]

Have the previous owners of the house been paying real estate taxes for 25 years? Bringing everything up to current code is a little bizarre if the state was accepting money, and not advising the old owner to submit to an inspection.

[Hotzcatz]

If it had a permit from 25 years ago that was never finalized, then that permit has now been entirely thrown out and you'd have to start all over. However, any parts of that permit that passed their inspection i.e., foundation, plumbing rough in, electrical rough in, etc., that were passed are still 'legal'.

There was a huge kerfluffle several years ago when the building department unilaterally threw out all existing permits. I heard they threw out over 40,000 of them, which is a huge amount, IMHO. The permitting system is now entirely electronic so no more paper plan submittals. It's supposed to make things quicker and there's been a learning curve on both sides of the computer screen, but things seem to be smoothing out. That means permits are now getting passed, although it's still a pretty long timeline. Figure about nine months to get a permit and hope it's not any longer and be happy if it's less.

It's really hard to get single wall approved, if you do want to make it legally permitted, you may have to do some 'post and beam' additions to the structure to get it to code. So that would be additional foundations (isolated piers are allowed if connected with a concrete bond beam - at least, currently) and from those piers under the posts, you then get to add in all the Simpson fittings as well as new beams.

[Bilboaintgreat]

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/202...ves-ahead/

There is a lawsuit on old permits that the county canceled.